In
theatre and non-theatre I've used a bunch of hazers and my real takeaway is maintenance. a DF-50 is bulletproof. Most
community theatre shows I did were about 40 shows over 6-7 weeks. The
hazer would have cues written into to the SMs
book so someone backstage could consistently turn it on and off during the show, usually during songs so it wasn't audible. After the entire run of the show we'd use maybe 1/4 of the tank.
With water based machines, sometimes they'd be in cleaning mode when you wanted them on or the nozzle would be clogged and you'd find the floor covered in fluid. Not to say they weren't ok most of the time, especially a run of Les Mis, it was nice to have output and fan control from the
console, but I just never trusted them.
In all cases, we usually locate the ac
return and place the
hazer on the opposite side of the
stage. Always wanting to make sure the
haze is even, we would use a box fan facing 90 degrees from the
hazer about 10 feet away, so you encourage some airflow but you're not blowing the
haze directly.
The only time I've had residue issues is with water based hazers because they vary their output. If the
element wasn't quite at the right temp or the fan and output were both at 100%, the output is like shower air, moist to the touch, and willing to be absorbed onto soft surfaces (legs).
edit: I've gone comma crazy